Originally from: Dispute Resolution Journal

The labor and employment arbitration field has had some wonderful leaders and teachers and one of them was arbitrator Margery Gootnick. It lost her on April 16, 2012, when she passed away after a short illness. Margery was completely devoted to arbitration. Her list of accomplishments is impressive and long: For example, she served as president of the National Academy of Arbitrators; she chaired the U.S. Foreign Service Impasse Disputes Panel and served on the Foreign Service Grievance Board, the International Council of Arbitration for Sport, and three Presidential Emergency Boards.

Margery was committed to the work of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution,1 and was one of the founding members of its Board of Advisors. She attended virtually all of the board meetings.2 I remember once during a board meeting in Ithaca she refused to leave early in order to fly to Washington, D.C., where she had a hearing the next day. Though I urged her to catch the last flight and avoid a lengthy drive, she said to me, “The Institute’s work is very important to me.” So she stayed until the meeting ended and then sat (and occasionally slept) during the six-plus-hour drive to D.C.